Behind every successful woman is an organized to-do list – or at least that’s how the story goes. Creatives have developed countless apps, bullet journals, schedulers, and cloud-linked notebooks to free us from from seas of post-it notes, and to make conquering all of those tasks just a little bit easier.

But what if this quest for productivity has it all wrong. What if the real key to getting things done is the opposite? Enter, the Not-To-Do List.

WHAT IS A NOT-TO-DO LIST?

While its closest relative, “learning to say ‘no,'” is a refusal to pile on, the Not-To-Do List is an active effort to do less in order to create space for whatever you need. Whether it be an hour of yoga, a trip to the park with your kids, or a serious date with Excel, the Not-To-Do List exists to help you get to that important thing that’s gotten the short end of the stick lately.

CHOOSING WHAT NOT TO DO

The habit when trying to shorten a to-do list is to look for things that we don’t have to do. Though weeding out inessential tasks is always a good idea, it’s not the best way to reduce a load. An item wouldn’t be on the list if it weren’t somehow necessary, so trying to remove to-dos altogether usually results in delays or worse – no changes at all.

Rather, the Not-To-Do List is made up of important items that use your time inefficiently. The easiest way to spot time thieves is to identify tasks that fall into one of the following two categories:

1. Things you’re not good at.

You can do anything you set your mind to, but should you? Trying to do something unfamiliar or that you routinely struggle with only serves to waste precious time and energy. It’s not worth reinventing the wheel when there are so many experts who can do it for you.

2. Things you’re good at, but don’t like doing.

Chances are high that, when faced with a despised chore, you a) Rush through it and make small mistakes or otherwise don’t do your best work, or b) Procrastinate and leak time like a sieve. At the very least, you probably c) Develop a sour mood.

Now that you’ve identified the Not-To-Dos, the next question is “who will do them?” The most efficient answer is to contract out to a professional. Sometimes we forget that the time we spend on our own pursuits is not free, and using more of your precious time to do what you do best is the best recipe for success and happiness.

So, get out there and take a chance! Forget the new tax code and hire an accountant, or enlist someone to run your social media so you can ignore Instagram. Try hiring a semi-monthly house-cleaner so you can play a game with your kids on the floor without thinking about cleaning it. Paying for more time to do what serves you will pay off in the long run.